Critters of the Costa Rican Varietal

We are on the west coast of Costa Rica, staying at a small hotel which can be found in the guide of “Elegant Small Hotels.” The villa is spacious, comfortable, has a full kitchen, and most of all, air conditioning. In case you don’t know, Costa Rica is humid (and quite warm at the coast). And just a few kilometers from the entrance to “Manual Antonio Parque,” known for great beaches, wonderful fauna, and plentiful wildlife. Everything is lined up for a day of shooting critters. Off to the park…

In just 2 1/2 hours we came across a doe, many sloths, ringtail raccoons, a singular ROUS, red crabs, Iguana, interesting spiders, and beautiful butterflies. Unfortunately we did not come across any of the three varieties of monkeys. Though we did hear one type quite often, the howler monkey. And boy do they howl.

The rain forest is quite low in light as there is a canopy almost everywhere you walk. This makes for more difficult shooting – either very steady hands or higher ISO. Some of the red crab shots were under dense, low hanging branches by a creek. Wanting to get a closeup shot we moved into the brush. One step in and the red crabs dove into holes in the ground. Thus all our shots came from a distance. It’s quite difficult to hold the camera steady while sweat is copiously dripping from every pore in my body (I never new I had that many pores). Here is a shot of my new friend: